A wire harness routed in a vehicle has as its object to protect a collection of electrical wires from outside interference by other vehicular instruments as well as to confine a wiring pathway, and in many cases a protector configured from resin-molded components is attached thereto. As a protector of this type, as in the protector 1 shown in FIG. 9, protectors are known in which a tubular body is divided into a main body 2 and a lid 3, the main body 2 and the lid 3 are respectively provided with a lock 4 and a locking latch 5, then the wire harness is inserted through the main body 2 and, in a state where the wire harness is pulled out from both end openings of the main body 2, the lid 3 is closed to lock and connect to the main body 2. (See Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H07-245839.)
The protector 1 is provided with a configuration in which an electrical wire latching baffle plate 6 jutting into a top surface opening side projects from upper ends of both lateral walls 2a of the main body 2, the harness inserted through the main body 2 interior is pressed from above by the electrical wire latching baffle plate 6, and thus lifting and protrusion of the electrical wires may be prevented, and pinching when the lid 3 is closed, lifting of the lid 3, and so on may be prevented.
However, in recent years, the type of instruments provided in the engine compartment of a vehicle has increased and a reduction of the harness deployment space has been sought; accordingly, there are cases where a thin-form protector is employed, and there is difficulty in providing complex structures such as the electrical wire latching baffle plate 6 of the protector 1 as described above to such a thin-form protector.
In particular, as shown in FIG. 10, in a case where a trunk line 106 of a wire harness 105 is passed into a protector 100, then branches 107 branching from the trunk line 106 are pulled out and branch to the left and right from an outlet 103 of a harness insertion space in the protector 100, conventionally the branches 107 have been bound by a tape 108. Thus, as shown in FIG. 11A, the shape of the trunk line 106 at a root portion of the branch 107 has become nearly circular in cross-section, a thickness (height) D1 thereof has increased, and the thickness D1 of the trunk line 106 has grown greater than a height H1 of the harness insertion space in the protector 100. As a result, as shown in FIG. 11B, there have been circumstances in which the lid 102 of the protector 100 has been pushed up by the tape-bound portion of the trunk line 106, the lid 102 has become easily opened by the lock connection breaking between the lid 102 and the protector main body 101, and the lid 102 and peripheral components have interfered with one another.